Keep McDowell Beautiful offers free backyard composting classes and hands on worm composting demonstrations. NC Cooperative Extension Composting Resources

Keep McDowell Beautiful offers recycling education programs for youth and adults. Bucky the Beaver can come visit your classroom and read a book about recycling, or Matt can speak to your club or organization about what can and cannot be recycled in our community. McDowell Recycling Info

Keep McDowell Beautiful partners with the Lake James Environmental Association, the Catawba Riverkeeper, Lake James State Park, the NC Wildlife Federation, the Community of Lake James, and many other groups and organizations to put on multiple lake clean up events each year.

Keep McDowell Beautiful partners with the NC DOT and the City of Marion to offer two different roadside clean up options based on which government agency manages the road. Keep McDowell Beautiful provides safety training, trash bags, grabbers, and gloves to help support volunteers. They will also help to coordinate with McDowell County Public Services, so volunteers do not have to pay fees for the trash they collect at clean up events.

NC DOT Adopt-A-Highway

Marion Adopt-A-Street

Keep McDowell Beautiful partners with local church youth groups, scouting organizations, clubs, and NC State University students to conduct clean ups on public property in McDowell County. This includes trails, parks, and popular fishing and swimming holes.

Keep McDowell Beautiful works to support school gardens by working with the school staff to meet their needs. Some schools need support through donations of seeds and starter plants. Other schools need a planting day lesson to get their garden going. In the spring, the YMCA afterschool program partners with Keep McDowell Beautiful to host a weekly visit to the garden with students from Marion, Eastfield, and Nebo Elementary schools.

Keep McDowell Beautiful works with Project Challenge & Camp FUGE youth at the Tabernacle Community Garden. The teenagers along with a handful of adult volunteers grow vegetables to help support local food banks. They also grow flowers and maintain the area to help beautify the east side of Marion. Keep McDowell Beautiful also supports other community gardens in the county through shared resources and planning.